TIC- Taiwan – Window is Closing

"Taiwan – Window is Closing"

The United States and the West are facing an unavoidably deadly dilemma

In 2012, Xi Jinping, General Secretary laid out his plan for China to achieve global dominance. In addition to displacing the United States as the dominant hegemonic military and economy, Mr. Xi made it clear that a major component of his plan is to reunite Taiwan so that it would no longer exist as a renegade province. He stressed that the preferred reunification would be peaceful. Nevertheless, Mr. Xi will revert to the use of crushing and decisive force if a peaceful solution becomes impossible.

If 90% of the American people cannot find Taiwan on a map (nor should they be able to), would they countenance putting the lives of up to 20,000 of our soldiers, sailors, and marines at risk to help defend Taiwan and, thus, become directly engaged in a shooting war with China? What would be the global consequences if the United States retreated from the Indo-Pacific area? How would such a globally dominant China impact the economy of the United States, if not the economies of the European Union and other countries?

In our lecture, we will consider other important issues, including;

• Will the Taiwan military respond like the Ukrainians or the Afghan army?
• Has Taiwan invested sufficiently in its defense?
• Is our Navy, with fewer ships, inferior to the numerically superior Chinese navy?
• Under what circumstances would China opt to not use military force?
• What would be the phases of an invasion of Taiwan by China?
• What would be the phases of a Taiwanese defense against such an invasion?
• Why will a Chinese invasion of Taiwan be a much, much more complex and bloody undertaking than anticipated?
• Will re-uniting Taiwan solve other existential problems standing in the way of the China Dream? (i.e. aging population, uncertain economy, massive debt obligations, etc.)

Facilitator: Mike Quinlan

Monday, March 18^th
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Complimentary (Reservations required)

Please visit www.thecommonsclub.com or call 239-949-3800